speech which we'll carry live at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. thanks for watching. dylan ratigan picks things up from here. the president's speech is the news, 7:30 tonight. full military analysis and political analysis of that. and then we're turning our attention as well to energy as we go into this week. you don't have to look much further than the headlines in the middle east or asia to know that we've got a lot to discuss when it comes to our own energy policy, richard. so that's what we're into. thank you for the time this afternoon. our show starts right now. good afternoon to you. my name is dylan ratigan. nice to see you. it's 4:00 here in new york city. nice but cold. 10:00 in tripoli where it's surely too hot. the big story today, the rebel

advance in libya. just hours before president obama speaks to the nation about our mission there, rebels have fought their way to the doorstep of gadhafi's hometown of sirte. in the last three days, we've seen a dramatic push from the rebels racing across the desert retaking cities they've lost to gadhafi's troops. >> today's 41 days -- we've been 41 days. and gadhafi has been 42 years in power. hopefully tomorrow is 42 days and we're going to finish it tomorrow. >> what is unclear is just how much coalition air strikes have paved the way for this advance or how sustainable this advance even is. the air strikes now being transferred from u.s. to nato control. pentagon officials about to brief reporters on how long the handover will take and what exactly that actually means. the central question being addressed by the president this evening at 7:30 eastern time.

richard engel live in a rebel stronghold in benghazi. richard, what's the mood? >> reporter: the mood here is very optimistic. people think that they have the momentum. there was a victory parade in benghazi overnight. rumors that sirte had fall ton the rebels pand this city exploded. there was gunfire almost all night. tank celebratory fire, which i had never heard before. and the mood here is electric. but i don't think it's fair to say they've fought their way to the doorsteps of sirte. it's quite clear the air strikes by the western powers really paved the way. this was a quick drive to sirte. and it is only now that they've arrived on the outskirts of sirte. sirte being gadhafi's hometown and stronghold. >> what should we be watching for here in the states the next 48 hours? >> reporter: if they can get through sirte, then they don't

have much further to go to reach misrata. and once in misrata, they're really on gadhafi's doorstep. sirte is a test in many ways of gadhafi's strength of how much loyalty he can still command, even from his own tribe. if sirte falls quickly or falls at all, so could go the rest of this country. >> understood, richard. your reporting throughout this has been exceptional, i think, beyond remark. rage and revolution, crisis in the middle east, richard with co-host. i want to bring in a former national security council member along with tony schaefer. the president's going to speak tonight. does anybody really know what's

going on in libya and can the president tell america tonight? >> no, i think richard knows more about what's going on in libya than anyone. we didn't know anything about iraq when we went into iraq. the president is going to get so many different pieces of advice from different advisers. some will say, don't make the syrians or the saudis mad. the president has to say what he believes. he needs to speak to the american people and say, here's the world, it's complicated. here's what i think, here's what we're trying to do. if he tries to reach too many different audiences. >> it's not going to be effective. >> we have a military who's mostly done this on their own initiative. i would -- >> what do you mean? >> i've described the atmosphere of my friends on the inside is one of consternation. there was clearly a message coming from the white house

saying, we're not going to do anything militarily. our guy, our troops, our planners are planning like we had to do something and we had to. our military has to respond to policy, policymakers. there's been very little in the way of clear policy, clear direction especially when you look at everything going on at once all across the middle east. frankly, the military guys and gals i know are doing their best to try to keep on top of things. and it's very tough not having a clear policy regarding how we're going to move forward here. >> there's a couple of ways to look at the world and one of the ways is certainly back in my stock market days people look at the world as, do you know what you don't know? can you identify the things that you don't know what they are so that you could then calculate for that? you mentioned iraq. is there anything that we learned in iraq as to categories of information that we surely don't know the answers to that can be applied here? in other words, do we even know what we don't know in libya? >> until we were in iraq in great force and great density, we were looking at iraq through

a keyhole. >> what does that mean exactly? >> you're looking at it through your intelligence assets, your sources of information. but we weren't there. it was a closed country for many decades. libya is the same thing. there are 80 million people in egypt. we don't know what the egyptian people think. we're going to learn. we're in an era of great, great uncertainty. this is going to define the obama presidency. he now needs to speak what he believes. we're in this era of uncertainty. the world is changing, moving really fast. do we stand for our values or for stability in the middle east? what are the principles that we're behind here? in libya he's going to say, we face add humanitarian crisis, a disaster, but we had to go. but once you're there, it's not easy to get out. what are we going to do the next six months, the next two years? >> what's your answer to that question, tony? >> the answer is we're on a path

to another bosnia. >> what does that mean? >> a tribal situation, much like in bosnia, elements which are disparate. this revolution started in the east. they've pulled out the old flag from the old regime before gadhafi was in power and what we're seeing is essentially one side of the country facing the other. right now, one of the reasons that you've seen this very rapid retaking of all these cities is because these were all the cities who rose up against gadhafi before. misrata and sirte are going to be the through tests because these cities stayed loyal to gadhafi. we're at the pivot point. if things go badly, this could be the point where the revolution stopped and we started going into this partition potential. >> do you agree with richard engel's assessment that -- the libyan military is vastly more powerful than any of these rebels to this day. and the only reason they're even

able to advance the way that they have going into the president's speech is because of u.s. irrelevant activity. >> certainly. does the army stand for gadhafi? do they abandon gadhafi? >> we don't know. we're going to see. >> let's turn to another big story today. shocking details about a so-called kill team in afghanistan. i do want to warn viewers that the details and images in this are about as graphic as you will come by. today, "rolling stone" publishing pictures of u.s. soldiers who allegedly murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses. "rolling stone" saying the soldiers posed with corpses and kept body parts as trophies. >> the platoon had a reputation for staging killings and other units knew about it. so that's what's most disturbing. in one particularly disturbing case after they killed a 15-year-old boy, a few nights later they were playing poker

and they threw the boy's finger in as a bet. >> "rolling stone" also saying that military officials in both afghanistan and the pentagon are aware of this unit and ultimately were trying to keep the story from becoming public. >> the pentagon launched a massive effort from keeping anyone from ever seeing these pictures. they sent out people to confiscate hard drives and visit relatives' homes who they know had seen the photographs and seep them under wraps. >> jeremy morlock was sentenced to years in prison after admitting to killing civilians. tony, you served in afghanistan. put this in context. >> well, morally there's nothing i can say about that. i can tell you that there is a clear failure of both training and standards. morlock should have never been in the army. this demonstrates to me how much

our standards -- i started off as a recruiter when i was a brand-new enlisted guy and we didn't take anyone who even had a hint of a criminal record. he had all sorts of violations to including torturing his wife. training as well. i watched these videos. i was sickened by them. you don't kill people arbitrarily. if you think they're the bad guy, you capture them and try to get all the intel auto of them as you can. this is something i see is a huge problem on the battlefield right now. >> put this in the context of abu ghraib. is it even possible to know as a political issue? >> general petraeus says these things are biodegradable. they don't go way and impact everything we're trying to do. this is just wanton murder. that's why one of the guys on trial going to prison is going to -- >> he's going to get off lightly, 24 years. that's nothing.

>> but it's deeply, deeply unfortunate. it's not something you can put in context. but you have to keep in mind what the taliban is doing every day. >> i want to look at the bigger issue as i see it here at the very least, this is america is squeamish about war. there's a guy who writes -- i'm not excusing this behavior. i'm talking about our relationship with libya, our relationship with the soldiers who get sent five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times, a situation because we don't have a draft where we're going to the bottom of the barrel to draft people or recruit people like this guy morlock. have we gotten ourselves into these situations in part because the american people have been kept so immunized from war? and when you see the pictures coming out of libya and gadhafi -- i'll set aside the murder. forget the "rolling stone" murder story. i don't know that the american

people comprehend how violent war actually is through the eyes of someone like moammar gadhafi. am i wrong about that? >> the american people have for the most part not been focused on this forhe oprbls. wee d augecom bae erheas four or five years. if you're having a hard time meeting your own bills, you don't look out as much. we need to call our kids home. i'm not saying we should leave afghanistan completely. but the bottom line is, if we weren't there right now, we would not have this problem with the recruitment of these kind of people like morlock. >> i think we're there. i think we're going to have to be there. i think it is unfortunate. we have an entire generation who have served for eight years, nine years, ten years and it's a small slice of our society. and i think most of the country doesn't pay attention. and it's good that the president is going to speak to the country tonight about what we're doing. it's important. you have to keep on talking about it because people need to know. but i agree with you. it's a very small slice of our population.

military side and civilian side. diplomats have been ten years in these violent places. it affects families and their lives. and it's important that we pay attention to them. >> and the asmymmetrical cost, are they relieved of the obligation to think about it -- you don't have to use your mind for this. while 5% or 10% of our country is -- it's their life. and we pay for it with debt. actions have consequences. you guys have been great with me, not just now but up through this whole experience and i appreciate it. thank you, brett and tony. still ahead, congress back to business on the budget. if you call business cutting millions from a multitrillion-dollar problem. and why coal is actually deadlier than nuclear. not to mention a couple of cinderellas crashing the big dance at the final four. we'll talk about that as well. [ male announcer ] this is lara.

her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills.

the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in quid gels.

is libya in our vital interest as a country? >> no, i don't think it's a vital interest for the united states. but we clearly have interest there. and it's a part of the region which is of vital interest for the united states. >> but what they were doing and gadhafi's history and the potential for the disruption and instability was very much in our interest as bob said, and seen by our european friends and our arab partners as very vital to their interests. >> secretaries gates and clinton talking about the military intervention in libya and whether it serves our vital

interest. president obama addressing the nation in about three hours. america looking for clarity on not just libya but recent events in general in the middle east. many americans unsure how the limited scope of this mission so-called protecting civilians and calling for moammar gadhafi to go, not to mention, america's relationship with bahrain, saudi arabia, egypt, you get the point. joining this conversation, a man with a keen interest in this and a man who represents not only the great state of vermont but the ideology of many in this country, senator bernie sanders from vermont. senator, what questions do you have you would like to hear answered from this president? >> well, here's my concern. we have lost thousands of lives in afghanistan and iraq. and at the end of the day, those are going to cost us trillions

of dollars. i think fighting two wars simultaneously may well be enough. i'm not sure i want to see this country drawn into a third war, which will cost us substantial sums of money. i hope the president will tell us today that if our friends in europe, if the uk, france and italy feel very strongly about this issue, i hope they will do what they want to do. but i am not enthusiastic about the united states getting drawn into a third war when we have a $14 trillion national debt and when we have lost so many lives already in afghanistan and iraq. >> at the same time, don't we have to be honest about the nature of our energy dependency, particularly oil as an overland transportation fuel? and the hypocrite call relationship of foreign policy relationship with any number of countries as we've tried to maintain a balance of power? >> my own view is we have to

move as quickly as possible away from foreign oil where we're spending about $350 billion a year, move to energy independence, move to energy efficiency and to sustainable energy. but we cannot continue to keep going to war in the middle east every time there is a crisis there. look, the truth of the matter is, i am focusing right now on a budget situation where our republican friends want to devastate programs like head start, the social security administration, college grants, the middle class and working class families, the environmental protection agency. their arguing is there's not enough money to funding those programs. meanwhile, we're spending more on a third war in libya. my hope is the president will tell us today that our involvement there is going to end very, very shortly. >> you mentioned the budget debate. how optimistic are you feeling in your ability to fend off the attack on some of the programs

you just outlined? >> i think what every poll i have seen tells us is the american people believe that it is absurd that we move toward deficit reduction solely on the backs of the middle class and working families, lower income people and not ask the wealthiest people in this country who are doing phenomenonly well to pay one penny more in taxes at the same time as their real tax rate is lowest on records, they have received hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks. what we've recently learned, corporation after corporation, whether it's general electric, exxonmobil, chevron, bank of america, you name it, these banks have made huge profits are paying either nothing or have gotten rebates from the irs. to my mind, before you decimate programs in terms of education, the environment, community health centers and health care, you've got to ask the wealthiest people in this country and some of the large corporations to

engage in shared sacrifice. don't balance the budget on the most vulnerable alone. >> and, again, i think that most reasonable people would agree with some version of what you just said at the very least, that isolating the resolution on the most vulnerable because they're the least predictly represented -- >> exactly. >> which is the only reason, right? >> you got it. look, i have introduced an amendment which would impose a surtax of 5.4% on incomes of over $1 million. and that would bring in almost enough money to negate all the terribleeplican cut in addion to that, we do away with some of the loopholes that the oil companies take advantage of. yes, of course, there have to be some cuts. but you just don't go after the sick, the elderly, children, students and say to the richest people in this country who are doing phenomenally well, you don't have to play any role.

we're going to balance the budget solely on working families. i think your point is right. what's the reason for that? working people don't make huge campaign contributions, don't have lobbyists crawling all over capitol hill. i think what the republicans are proposing is wrong and i hope democrats stand up and say, we need revenue, ask the wealthiest people to help us toward deficit reduction. >> the last question i have on the revenue side -- i don't know whether anybody's done any math on this. but in the event we did not have the massive unemployment crisis ha we have, in the event we did not have the massive housing crisis where we traded the financial crisis in 2008 and we exchanged it, again, due to lack of political representation, we exchanged the financial crisis for a housing and unemployment crisis, is there any indication as to how much that unemployment and that housing crisis has created this deficit? >> of course. there's no question about that. i don't think many serious people dispute that. as a result of the dishonesty

and illegal behavior on wall street which plunged us into a recession, revenue coming into the government has substantially declined. there's no question about it. people are unemployed, they're not playing taxes. >> if the reason you have a shortfall is because of a spike in unemployment because of a screwed-up economic policy, once again, isn't that the way you solve that problem by, one, holding accountable those who created it, and, two, creating jobs? >> absolutely. look, everybody understands the fastest way out of the recession by definition is putting people back to work. i think people do not understand that unemployment is a lot higher than the official statistics out there. real unemployment today, dylan, is close to 16%, if you include people who have given up looking for work and people who are working part time. then throw on top of that millions of people who are seen a reduction in their wages. so obviously if you've got an

economy moving, we put people back to work rebuilding our infrastructure, transforming our energy system. if you do those things and put people to work, more money will come into the treasury. >> it's not a complicated math problem. we all know that defunding food stamps is probably the stupidest place to start i've ever heard. senator, thank you for your efforts. >> thank you. >> bernie sanders. up next, a little monday mega panel. libya, a set-up for the obama speech. and, yes, where's charles dickens when you need him? the best of times and the worst of times in the uk and the u.s. protesters who marched against austerity budget cuts, unemployment and housing problems in the uk now vowing to disrupt what is an estimated $150 million royal wedding. how do you spend that much money on a wedding? and then tomorrow on the show, foerm state department spokesman

p.j. crowley. remember the guy who said the bradley manning treatment is ridiculous and stupid? well, this will be his first msnbc interview since he resigned following the speaking of his own mind about the treatment of bradley manning and our deviants from the uniform code of military justice with that particular prisoner. if only there were a place where banks competed to save me a boatload of money on my mortgage, that would be awesome! sure. like that will happen. don't just think about it. spend 10 minutes at lending tree and save up to $272 a month. oh. ooh. happy birthday todd. it's for a cough... from allergies... [ male announcer ] halls relieves coughs and sore throats due to allergies too. now you know. dso i takeergies too. one a day men's 50+ advantage. as manager, my team cots on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration.

plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. ♪ ♪ i'm back in the saddle again ♪ ♪ out where a friend is a friend ♪ [ gulps ] ♪ where the longhorn cattle feed ♪ ♪ on the lowly gypsum weed ♪ back in the saddle again see how affordable an rv vacation can be. visit gorving.com and watch a free video. go affordably. go rving. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful.

introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving cream works quickly to activate sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals fast for relief you can feel precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol.

welcome back. moments ago, we heard from senator bernie sanders who said he's not enthusiastic about her mission in libya. but then again, who is enthusiastic about american military operations in the middle east these days? the house and the senate, however, have hearings scheduled for libya for this week. all of this in the run-up to the president's big speech this evening, ladies and gentlemen. and here to talk about it with us, our monday mega panel, sam seeder, an unusually agitated sam seeder, i might add. senior political columnist for

the "washington examiner" and part of a regional irish mafia, they call him tim but i sometimes call him john or brian or timmy or pat. but his name is tim. and editor at large qur reuters, christa freeland. i call her oksana. the president tonight, tim, can he say anything that will be effective for a man like yourself? >> saying something will be far better than what he's done today. the fact that we had a u.n. vote putting us into this war before he said a word, the fact that then he only said that one statement on a friday before we then put us into war on a weekend, that's half of what has people like me so upset. >> you want the speech before the war? >> this is what george w. bush -- i did not like his entry

into iraq but at least he led us -- >> i got it. he irritates you -- >> no. >> no, no, he does. that's fine. >> his news irritates you. >> you probably irritate him. >> i try. >> but with that said, you look like you were agreement with everything that came out of his mouth? >> i was. and that's as far as it goes -- >> why? >> you do need to explain this to the american public. and i want to make sure the president is going to follow what the u.n. mandate is, which is essentially, stop once you have protected the civilians. i think this is a good use of our military. i'm glad we're finally doing it under the auspices of the u.n.

spices of einternatiol law. >> you share t criticihich is talk first, idely tell th trut and then do what you have to do. you're not having this? >> of course you should talk first. but bottom line, this is absolutely the right thing for the united states to be doing. it was risky and difficult for the president to make the decision. and this is a moment there should be bipartisan support. the right loves democracy, right? you love democracy around the world. your president, his big mission was democracy in the middle east. the middle east is standing up saying, yeah, we want knock si. shouldn't all the right in america say, yes, we believe in these libyans? and the same for the left. this is a much smarter intervention than iraq was. this is carping about the timing of the obama presidency -- >> we're not carping. >> tim, please. >> the guy is starting a war. it's not carping. he is sending soldiers -- my

wife and i counted up friends which we qualified as people whose wedding we went to and people who we had like at our parties multiple times. we had 14 friends serving a more than 30 combined times in iraq -- what is the american interest? >> what about her freedom question about the conservative ideology? >> i don't know who these rebels are. the number one place for al qaeda to -- >> people who are standing up against one of the most vicious regimes in the world and good for them. you know what? if america did not -- and the west did not intervene in this, we would all be here five years from now wringing our hands about massacre. >> i don't know that i represent the left on -- >> well, you know, tim's not sure he represents the right. he went with it.

>> as far as what the u.n. has mandated, it is not about exporting democracy. this is not about intervening. it's about protecting civilians who we have very good reason to believe were about to be anilelated in massive amounts of numbers. >> that's nonsense. there's been enough genocide where we haven't intervened, the hypocrisy of jgenocide intervention is nonsense. >> i agree with you. there's a lot of hypocrisy here. if there's no oil in libya, you wouldn't have -- >> it doesn't have to be about exporting democracy. nothing is being exported. these people want xhdemocracy f themselves. >> what about the freedom fighters? i mean that not in the central american revolutionary sense of the word. what we're seeing in the middle east from oppressed people by the saudis, oppressed by the

iranians, oppressed by the bahrainis, oppressed by the egyptians or in this case oppressed by the libyans who are saying, set my people free and where are the political parties -- >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. mr. reagan was right. >> it's the u.n. resolution has nothing to do with regime change. regime change, obama says, that's a policy of the united states but it's not the pint of this war. there's an incoherence here that really matters. are we going to let gadhafi -- >> that is point. that's why we need to hear from obama. but it is one thing to have a policy of wanting -- that we don't want -- we're not going to militarily involve ourselves in regime change. i'm not interested in providing freedom for these people. that's for these people to figure out. but what i am -- i do believe is just is when you have an imminent moment where there could be civilians who are going

to be slaughtered on a mass scale -- and i don't know of a better way to judge that than letting it go through the u.n. process, we must be under those auspices. >> it's completely false to pretebd tend that slaughtering civilians and people fighting for freedom can be separated. the people who slaughter siflians tend to be ruthless authoritarian dictators. you don't have nice, cozy, lovely, democratic regimes massacring civilians -- it's not much of a secret that the reason the political forces, republican and democratic, are not out there, gorbachev, tear down this wall, set my people free, because we, not us but the american government, the democrats, the republicans, the white house, is long or we are long -- we are invested in the perpetuation of corrupt regimes who oppress their people in

bahrain, in saudi arabia, across the region and as a result we don't have a speck of dirt to stand on to do what you want -- >> that's why this action is so important. because it's important for people in north africa who are doing -- this is such aistoric momentn that par the rld. and it'sery importt for them toee that th west is people are willing to take their own fate in their hand, they will have support. 100% persist. but surely it is not too much to say if people are willing to put their lives on the line, we will help you not get massacred by your dictator. >> at the same time, don't you have to acknowledge both to tim and to sam that their criticism of a president who failed to communicate, let alone get the approval of its own government and its own people before doing it, however justified you or

anybody else might think it is, is completely outrageous and offensive and a reason why his face is kind of red in color and the reason why sam is so agitated today? >> sure. he got the p.r. wrong. >> it's not just p.r. one of the aspects i like about this is we can watch joe lieberman go on television over the weekend and talk about attacking a half a dozen other countries. but by setting the precedence that we can't do anything without the u.n., that this is not a unilateral american move i think is very important. >> quickly, then you get the last word. >> past performance is no guarantee of future performance. what we saw in iraq leads me to believe that i would trust the u.n. processes far more than i would -- >> everywhere he said u.n., i would say the united states congress is what needs to approve this war and he didn't even come close to bringing it up for discussion with them. >> i wish this conversation was

going away. but i guarantee it's not. when i see you next week, we'll talk a little bit more about it. try to keep the blood pressure sure. same for you, sam. you seem to be doing just fine. lovely to have you here. still ahead, what we have on tap for our new steel on wheels tour this week. an urgent response to the middle east. an energy summit coming in oklahoma at the end of the week. but, first, two cinderellas and one dance. we'll be right back. i was young, i was in shape, and i had a heart attack.

you need to do the preventative things that you need to do for your heart health. for me, it means an aspirin regimen. before you begin an aspirin regimen. speak to your doctor. rely on e-trade. find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. use pre-defined screeners. work smarter. not harder.

depend on yourself to take charge of your financial future. e-trade. investing unleashed. you know rheumatoid arthritis means pain. but you may not know it can also mean destruction. not just of your joints, but of the things you love to do. and the longer you live with the aching, swelling, and stiffness, the closer you may be to having your favorite things... taken away from you. but you can take action today. go to ra.com for your free joint profile so you can better talk to your rheumatologist about protecting your joints.

we're back with a fairy tale that has not one but two cinderellas. that's what this year's ncaa tournament has introduced. a couple of underdogs. butler and vcu. this is not simply an upset. this is a massive statistical

aberration. butler was an eight seed. they were unlikely to go this far at 37-1. but virginia commonwealth, an 11 seed had to win a play-in game just to get into the tournament. their odds of making this first, 820 to 1. you would think it will be impossible for anyone to nail the final four bracket in which butler plays vcu. and you'd almost be right because two people did get it right. in espn's tournament challenge, simply two folks out of nearly 6 million brackets came up with the perfect final four march madness indeed. up next, shifting our attention to energy as the middle east and japan force us in that direction. coal may have helped build this country but is it still good for

america? our segment with the folks over at good right after this. looking for a simple way to help lower your cholesterol? try benecol spread - a heart healthy alternative to butter. benecol contains an ingredient that helps block cholesterol absorption and has a delicious, buttery taste. make benecol part of your healthy lifestyle.

he needs some gellin'. yeahhhhhhh. gellin' is like having a teeny tiny foot masseuse in your shoe. you like ? nice !

dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles. outrageous comfort, all-day long. have you been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib? if so, now's the time to talk to your doctor again, even if you're already taking medication to reduce your stroke risk. atrial fibrillation can cause a blood clot to form here, in your heart, that can break free and go straight to your brain, where it can cause a serious stroke. strokes that are twice as likely to be deadly or severely disabling as other types of strokes. but if you're one of the 2 million people who have atrial fibrillation, there's never been a better time to talk to your doctor. because you and your doctor can choose from different kinds of medicines to help prevent a stroke. for a free interactive book, call... or log-on to afibstroke.com. and with this valuable information in your hand, talk to your doctor.

we launch our final steel on wheels tour this wednesday with an issue that could not be more timely, our nation's energy crisis. the spike in oil prices accompanying the mideast revolutions has sparked renewed interest in alternative and any

domestic fuel source, not to mention the japan nuclear emergency which has prompted many of us to take a look at the outdated nuclear technology in use in our own country. for all the fears surrounding something like nuclear, experts say the truly dangerous energy source is the one we've been relying on for centuries -- coal. coal mining has killed far more people than nuclear energy ever has, not to mention the harm it does once it entering the environment. global warming, anyone? ben goldhersh is here to help us answer the question, is coal really good for america? you were digging, ben. what did you find? >> what's important here is contextu contextualizing what we saw in fukushima, what's the right response in the short and long term. and understanding when you look at danger per terawatt generated, how does nuclear stack up against coal and the

other energy sources coming to the surface. i don't want to state a definitive position on what's the right direction. but we want to arrive at a portfolio that makes sense economically and makes sense against the needs that we have now and going forward. >> i want jesse jenkins to join us in this conversation. he is the director of the breakthrough institute. can you paint a clear picture of the relative risks of something like coal compared to nuclear? >> yeah. despite all the potent fears about nuclear power, if you look at any objective terms, there are several orders of magnitude difference between the risks posed by nuclear power and the much greater risk posed by coal or oil which provide the bulk of our energy today. >> how do you measure that? >> if you look at the public health impacts, the premature deaths, years of lives lost, there's very estimates and methodologies may differ. but each one shows the relative

impact on public health on the lives lost due to our consumption of coal far outstrip our -- the dangers due to our consumption of nuclear power. that includes risks of major dents like the one at the chernobyl site or less disastrous accident occurring now in fukushima. >> last year, nuclear had all sorts of momentum as the filthiness of all the other energy source came up. the most obvious, the bp oil spill. do you get any sense of how much of a decelebration there's been in nuclear? >> it's a deceleration in my mind. i think the conversation at the political level and economic level is taking a big hit. last year, it felt like people were depending on nuclear to play a critical role in that portfolio. i'm not sure if that same energy is there now. be interesting to hear -- jesse, you're more in the field -- to see if you're seeing that same thing? >> in the united states, we're going to be taking a much closer look at nuclear power.

but there are only a couple of plans on the drawing board for a future nuclear power plant in the united states. in countries like japan, domestic supplies of fossil fuels are quite limited. it's going to be difficult to power the full size of their economy without either an existing or expanding role for nuclear power in their energy mix. places like china, india, japan and elsewhere. >> listen, i guess my last point, ben, if you want to get into what's good for america, whether it's coal, nuclear or anything else, is how incredibly inefficient we are as a country in the way we burn lots of coal, run nuclear plants, hydro and everything else. and yet we only capture 35% -- 35%, ben, japan captured 90%. germany captures 85%. what are we doing here? we just burn this for the hoot of it. might as well rip a hole in the attic and just light a fire. >> it seems each week whether it's education or energy, we're talking about efficiency. and i think our country has

leaps and bounds in terms of progress we can make on that front. but there are a lot of brilliant people who are working in all the different areas trying to close that gap. >> listen, you two are surely good for america, at least in my opinion if i'm allowed to authorize such an opinion. do you have a grademark on the game "good" by the way, ben. >> as much as we can hold. >> you can't sue me for saying i think you're good for america? >> it's a weak trademark. >> thank you both so much. a critical time for our nation's energy policy which is why we're hitting the road this week for a three-day energy summit to finish up our steel on wheels tour. we begin at a truck stop, they like to call them travel stops now in oklahoma city. on wednesday, examing just how much we waste on our power grid and our gas tanks. it is startling how much we burn for nothing. thursday and friday, to oklahoma

state university we go. osu talking about manipulated prices of things like oil relative to what we spend, i don't know, at the pentagon. and how that price manipulation, the unholy alliance between business and state, is causing us to remain dependent on that dirty oil. our energy summit culminates thursday night 8:00 in a live town hall at osu. it will stream live on a stack of websites. i think it's worth a tune-in. t. boone pickens is on the panel. and potentially oklahoma senator tom coburn, james woolsey. we have your bases covered. we hope you can join us for that town hall. counts on me to stay focused. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. it's the only complete multivitamin

with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. introducing "better car replacement." if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance. that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication.

the exelon patch -- it releases medication continuously for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more.

we're back with the daily rant. kelly goff here to talk about something we all hate -- the nonapology apology. take it away. >> thanks, dylan. in the last two years, chris brown has given a lot of people a lot of reasons to dislike him. there was his assault of rihanna and his response since the asaul. a piece of advice. the best way to convince people you've tamed your violent temper is not responding violently when somebody asked you about your violent temper. he has become the poster child

for the "i'm sorry but not really" era. at various times, he's expressed regret for what happened or what transpired. but many of us are still waiting for him to say and record, "i'm sorry that i beat up a woman, very sorry, there are no excuses." but in the age of the nonapology apology, that's unlikely to happen."i'm sorry if people wer offended." if you resign in disgrace for groping a staffer, you're sorry if someone was offendedas if anybody wouldn't be offended by being groped in the workplace. nonapology apologies have become

so common they warrant their own wikipedia entry. people hesitate to apologize for wrongdoing for fear of being used in court against them. but apologies by medical personnel for errors the actually prevent patient "i'm sorry, no excuses, how can i make it right?" . maybe instead of titling his album "forgiving all my enemies," chris brown should have entitled it "i'm sorry." >> do you think he watches the show? >> probably not, unfortunately. he doesn't strike me as someone who's -- >> you don't think he's looking to solve america's trillion-dollar problems? >> if he watches any news substance of any shows at all, i